Shekinah is an interesting Hebrew word that is difficult to translate directly into English. It denotes the divine presence of God. It is derived from the Hebrew root, shakan/shaken, meaning "to settle down, abide, dwell". According to Encyclopaedia Judaica
In classic Jewish thought, the shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the shekhinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable.
Perhaps surprisingly, the word is not found at all in the Bible. It is from later rabbinic literature and is very common there. That does not mean that the rabbis invented a concept that was foreign to Old Testament writers. The idea of God's presence and a dwelling place for him is very common. As mentioned, Shekinah is dervied from the verb, "to dwell". Another word derived from that root is the noun, mishkan. This means dwelling place or tent and can refer to both a secular dwelling (tent) or a holy dwelling place like the tabernacle.
In Jewish thought the shekinah glory or divine presence is often coupled with a physical manifestation. The cloud by day and pillar of fire by night in the wilderness, as well as the smoke and thunder on mount Sinai, denotes the shekinah glory, the divine presence. When Moses was instructed to make a tabernacle in the wilderness, God would have a dwelling place among his people. He would "shakan" in the "mishkan" as we can read in Exodus.
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. (Exodus 33:9)
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode (shakan) thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (mishkan). (Exodus 40:35)
This is a bit of a side note, but it makes me think of John 1:14 where "the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us” and Mosiah 3:5 where "the who , who was, and is from all to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a of clay". (I highlighted the part that makes it easy to recognize King Benjamin's Hebrew wordplay). The God of Israel (Jesus Christ) was among his people again but this time they did not recognize him.
The dedication of the temple of Solomon is almost an echo of the tabernacle in Exodus.
10 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the filled the house of the Lord,
11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.
12 Then spake , The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick .
13 I have surely thee an to dwell in, a settled place for thee to in for ever. (1 Kings 8)
Even though the noun, shekinah, is not found in the Old Testament, it is easy to see how it was derived by the rabbis.
There is another interesting aspect of the shekinah of the rabbis. Even though there is strong evidence that Israelites of old were polytheists and worshiped a divine feminine, the later Deuteronomist and rabbinical views is that God is one in a very literal sense. However, shekinah is a feminine noun and thought to represent feminine aspects of the divine.
Yet, is not God omnipresent, how can he dwell in one location. This is where we miss it. The rabbinic teaching is that the omnipresence of God is Heavenly, it is his masculine nature, the part that protects, provides, watches over. However, the Shekhiniah is the earthly, the feminine nature where He nurtures, comforts, shares intimately with you. (Source)
I am not sure if or how we could relate that to LDS teachings of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother but I find it beautiful. It certainly does make me think of the heaven and earth relation that I have written about before as well as this post where the male and female counterparts are the culmination of the creation of heaven and earth. While here on earth, we have access to the "earthly" shekinah that will help us to ultimately reunite with the heavenly. As Latter-Day Saints, we would perhaps normally associate the divine presence that we have access to here on earth with the Holy Ghost, but the concept of shekinah is in fact associated with the concept of the Holy Spirit (ruach ha-kodesh) in Judaism.
As you probably already guessed from the heading of this post, this Hebrew thought of God's presence and relations to a tent/tabernacle, would be part of Lehi and Nephi's worldview and provides a better understanding of why there is so much focus on Lehi's tent in the wilderness.
In my next post I will discuss further evidence of connections between Lehi's tent and Israel's tabernacle.